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World
Background Nyawela Aga was born the fourth of six children - Nailah, Gazali, Kerubino, Nyawela himself, Abiba, and Jeremy (named for the English priest who helped deliver the child in the bed of a pickup truck in the pouring rain). Nyawela's mother, Ummi, grew sick after Jeremy's birth and died before he was six months old. After that, it was up to Nailah as the oldest (at fourteen) and a girl besides, to handle the mother's duties. She performed admirably. While the children's father, Onika, handled the cattle, Nailah ruled the home and Nyawela grew up a happy little boy, as happy as any child could be in that war-ravaged land. Nyawela was nine when he first discovered his geomantic powers, though he did not then know that term. He was working the herd of cattle his father owned with his two brothers and was bored. Looking around, he saw a nearly perfectly round rock. Focusing all of his youthful energy on the rock, he imagined it was one of the inselbergs, those isolated hills which rise abruptly from The Sudan's central plains -- Nyawela had seen them the year before when he father and uncle had taken him to Khartoum to buy cattle. Suddenly, the ground beneath the rock shuddered and a tiny inselberg erupted from the ground right beneath the rock. It teetered for a moment, the crown to the new formed hill, and then it rolled off to one side. Nyawela was amazed. He spent the rest of the afternoon making inselbergs, focusing entirely on the exciting new thing he could do, so entirely that several of the cattle he was supposed to be watching wandered off. Nothing, however, could diminish his joy in the new skill he'd found, not even the beating his father administered for his lack of attention. Nyawela decided that day to learn all that he could about the ground and the earth and how it all works. Onika did not have much use for school or education, but Ummi did and, therefore, so did Nailah. She saw to it that each of the children received some education every day and whenever necessary she did extra work to pay for it. So Nyawela knew how to read, if not well, and the very next day he ran to Father Jeremy and asked to learn about the ground. The good Father told the eager boy everything he could and then gave Nyawela the only book on geology he had, an old and battered textbook written to be used in a secondary school. It was difficult at first, for Nyawela did not know many of the words and the concepts in the book were alien to him. But Father Jeremy helped as much as he could, providing the definitions he knew and getting the ones he did not. The more he learned, the more Nyawela wanted to be a geologist. One day that all changed. Once more, he was working the herd with his father and uncles and his brother Gazali. His father and his uncle Uba had returned the day before from another cattle buying trip to Khartoum. Suddenly, a dozen men swooped in on horses, brandishing swords and rifles. They were whooping and calling to each other in Arabic and to Nyawela they looked like Muslims from the north. Nyawela's Arabic was not yet good but he did catch "black devils" and "cattle" and "poachers" and "revenge". Suddenly, the rifles began shooting and Ummi and Gazali fell, their blood staining the earth a sick red ochre. Uncle Uba dodged a sword swing and pulled his attacker from the saddle. Two of the attackers raced toward Nyawela and he felt a bullet pass just over his head. As the one prepared for another shot and the other prepared to decapitate the young boy, Nyawela felt an explosion in chest of fear and rage and hate. Suddenly, the ground erupted beneath the two charging horses and both men and horses flew into the air. When they landed they did not move again. Looking around, Nyawela saw that all the other attackers had paused, staring at the downed men and horses and at the young boy. One raised his rifle and the ground beneath his horse erupted and then the rest were fleeing. None escaped the vengeful youth, though not all died. After securing the living and gathering the cattle, Nyawela and his uncle carried the bodies of Ummi and Gazali home, pushing the prisoners ahead of them. The local authorities interrogated the attackers and learned that they were all from the Kababish tribe of the Juhaynahir (a group of nomadic Arabs). Their cattle had been stolen and they'd decided, wrongly, that Ummi and Uba had stolen them. Before they could be tried, however, a Muslim in Khartoum, high-ranking and the cousin of one the attackers, had all the survivors transferred to Khartoum for trial. Before that could happen, however, they all "escaped" and so were never punished. Though Uba and Nailah tried for a year, going to Khartoum many times, the Muslim dominated government would do nothing. The rage which Nyawela had first felt on that hot and dusty battlefield returned and has never left. He vowed to free his people and his country from the Muslim dominated government. He began studying geology and his own powers ever harder. He also read all that he could about The Sudan and Islam, learning much general African history as well. He also studied Arabic and English, becoming fluent in both before his twentieth birthday. About that time, Nyawela realized he could learn no more staying in his village. He needed the kind of scientific education possible only at a university and not a university in The Sudan. He also knew that a single person, no matter how powerful, could end the Muslim tyranny. He thought about joining the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA), but he would still be adding just one more body to an already large army. No, what the Dinka needed was money and plenty of it. It was with this attitude, which Nyawela displayed openly like a badge of honor, that he went to Italy to study geology and related topics at the University of Rome. And it was there that The Emperor of Tarot found him. It took little time for that immortal sorcerer to discover Nyawela history and even less time for him to push all the right buttons to get the young but powerful Sudanese to join Tarot as The World. Nyawela was not stupid and knew that he was being manipulated. He also knew he didn't care. Here was a way to get all the money he needed for his people, the Dinka Tribe of The Sudan. And he would take it. Personality and Motivations Nyawela is a man driven by his ambition, more than even he knows. He reads all that he can, not just about geology and geophysics, but also about The Sudan, Africa, and Islam (to better understand the enemy). As The World, he possesses an immense fortune and uses a large percentage of it to help fund the SPLA and other rebel groups in The Sudan. He has also provided for his family and provided well. He has not yet learned that the quest for money and power has become an end unto itself. He still believes he is doing all that he is doing solely to help the Dinka and the rest of the Sudanese people "free" themselves from Muslim domination. Quote "As the rubble and debris from an earthquake can be used to build anew, we shall use the rubble of the Muslim rule to build a glorious new Sudan." Powers and Abilities The World is attuned to the earth and is a potent manipulator of all facets of the earth. He can become rock-like, travel easily through the ground, create immense earthquakes, kinetically accelerate rock into its molten form, and even cause major alterations in terrain. There are many more facets of his earth manipulation powers and opponents will find him difficult to defeat even from a distance. Physically, he is a large, athletic, and powerful man, but not superhumanly so. Appearance Nyawela is a large man with a stony demeanor. He keeps his hair cropped so short that it is barely seen as a thin layer on his head. Except when interacting with 'his people' he is rarely seen smiling. He will typically be wearing colorful garb of his homeland. As The World, he wears a green and blue outfit that almost seems to be tie-dyed. Along with this he wears a simple cattle-herder's earthen brown cloak with the hood covering most of his face. Category:Characters Category:Sudanese Characters Category:Villains Category:Sudanese Villains Category:Male Characters Category:Male Villains Category:Energy Blasters Category:Tarot Villains